Tag Archives: Japan Airlines

Airbus Strikes a Deal with Japan Airlines and Cuts into Boeing’s Market

For decades Boeing has held a majority of the commercial airliner market with their ever popular 700 series of planes. However, most recently Japan Airlines, Japan’s oldest airline, struck a $9.5 billion dollar deal with Airbus, Boeing’s main competitor, to provide them with new large commercial airliners. This new order of planes will replace the Boeing 777s that Japan Airlines had previously been using. While Japan Airlines is only a section of the worldwide market, there is those who hypothesize that this might start a larger trend which would obviously be a lot more detrimental to Boeing’s worldwide operation.. Those same people also attribute this most recent loss of a part of Boeing’s customer base to a lack of innovation on Boeing’s part. While semi-recently Boeing did introduce the Boeing 787 Dreamliner there have been many unaddressed problems associated with it such as battery problems and time consuming errors. At the same time Boeing hasn’t produced much that could contribute to a new fleet with their smaller aircrafts either. Because of that airlines that had previously been loyal to the Boeing brand are beginning to look at other options; such as the new Airbus fleet. This situation is somewhat of a microcosm for the way in which a number of modern, big-name companies have gone in their lack of innovation or adjustment to the field in which they are in. Brand loyalty is a good thing to have, but it can only take a company so far when there’s other, potentially better, options out there waiting for each and every chance that they have to cut into the market.

Sources:

Japan Airlines Deal with Airbus is Blow in Boeing Stronghold

Photo Courtesy of Ken Mist via Flickr

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